General manager, Cox San Diego, since 1995. Previously worked for Cox Enterprises in New Orleans and Great Britain.

Community involvement: Chairman of The San Diego Foundation’s Regional Vision Initiative and co-chairman of the Mayor’s Civic Leadership Group and the emerging Business Leadership Alliance.

On the boards of The San Diego Foundation, Holiday Bowl, San Diego State University Campanile Foundation, University of San Diego Trustees, Century Club, Turning Point Ministries and the San Diego Regional EDC.

Past chairman of both the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and the San Diego Regional EDC. Has also participated in capital campaigns to restart the San Diego Symphony, build Junior Achievement’s BizTown and expand the Copley YMCA.

Bill Geppert, the civically involved local chief of Cox Communications for the past 16 years, said Friday that he plans to retire next month.

"My real passion other than being in the communications industry is my passion for San Diego," he said, explaining his decision to step down after 30 years in the business. "I felt a draw to do even more."

Geppert will continue in his current role through February.

He will be succeeded by Cox veteran David Bialis. A California native, Bialis ran the Cox operation in Oklahoma for nearly 20 years and has most recently served as the senior vice president for operations for Cox in California, Arizona, Nevada and Louisiana.

Geppert, a senior vice president and general manager for Cox, came to San Diego in 1995 and quickly became involved in all manner of community activities, from charities, to business groups and educational institutions.

His high visibility has led some to speculate he will run for mayor of San Diego when Jerry Sanders' term ends in 2012.

Geppert, 55, of Jamul, dismissed that talk.

"I have no plans to seek public office at this time," he said. "I think there's a lot of ways you can be involved and give back to the community."

Sanders lauded Geppert's involvement in the community.

"I think Bill would make a great mayor," he said Friday afternoon. "I’ve talked to him a lot. He's never indicated a desire to do that. ... We’re happy to keep him involved in the things he does."

Geppert said he's working on a San Diego Foundation effort to help focus a vision for the future of the region by getting people to talk about what's important to them in areas as diverse as transportation, the environment and what kind of big projects should be built.

"It’s important to have a collective group that can do that work from a nonpolitical standpoint, but from a standpoint that is really representative of what tens of thousand of San Diegans think is important," he said.

"He's out there raising money to help pay for it, strategizing, just spending an incredible amount of time," said Bob Kelly, the foundation's chief executive. "Now that he's retiring, he's going to spend more time with us."

San Diego Economic Development Corp. Chief Executive Julie Meier Wright has worked with Geppert for years and said his love for the region is real.

"Bill is passionate about San Diego and has turned down opportunities at Cox in order to remain here, he’s been so civically active in the community I can't imagine anything but that involvement growing."

Geppert established the Cox Kids Foundation, which has donated $3.5 million to youth organizations.

At work, he was responsible for transforming Cox San Diego from a cable provider to a multi-product communications company that included high-speed Internet and telephone services.

Under Geppert's leadership over a decade ago, Cox also has made a major push to supply Internet and telephone services to businesses — somewhat unusual for cable companies at the time.

"We've rolled out all the new products ... since I've been here," Geppert said. "Really transformed the company."

Cox said it has increased local revenue five-fold and tripled the number of employees during Geppert's time.

He launched Channel 4 San Diego, which produces local programming such as “Salute to Teachers” and “San Diego Insider Magazine,” and for the past 15 years, Padres baseball.

Cox fought AT&T's U-Verse TV service over the cable company's exclusive broadcasts of Padres baseball games, with AT&T filing a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission in 2009. After a ruling last year that supported AT&T position, Cox began talks to license the Padres games to rivals AT&T and DirecTV. Those talks are ongoing. Cox already licensed the games to Time Warner Cable in San Diego, which is not a direct competitor.

“We are deeply grateful to Bill for his outstanding leadership heading up our operations in New Orleans, the United Kingdom and, finally, San Diego,” said Pat Esser, chief executive of Atlanta-based Cox Communications, in a statement.